Brown Far Ahead in S.F. Mayor’s Race, Poll Finds

Voters favor Willie Brown over incumbent Frank Jordan by nearly 2 to 1 in next month’s mayoral runoff, according to a poll published Monday.

The San Francisco Chronicle/KRON-TV poll found the former Assembly Speaker defeating Jordan 56% to 29% among all respondents, with 15% undecided.

Among likely voters, Brown held a 57%-32% lead, with 11% undecided.

In last week’s general election, Brown garnered about 34% of the vote to Jordan’s 32%. Roberta Achtenberg, a former federal housing official and former city supervisor, won 27%.

Achtenberg voters apparently have aligned against the incumbent. The poll found that 71% of her supporters plan to vote for Brown, with only 13% favoring Jordan. About 16% remain undecided.

“Brown’s lead is pretty staggering,” pollster Mark Baldassare said. “It’s going to be tough for Jordan to find more votes among the undecided or Brown voters.”

But Jordan said he believes that Achtenberg’s supporters can still be swayed.

“They are independent thinkers,” Jordan said.

During the primary election campaign, Jordan questioned Brown’s ethics, his work as a defense attorney for drug dealers and his alleged conflict of interest with developers. But those criticisms apparently fell flat among the electorate, Baldassare said.

Asked which candidate would do a better job maintaining high ethical standards in city government, likely voters gave Brown and Jordan each 39%.

The poll was conducted Wednesday and Thursday among 600 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.